A few years ago, there was a special Valentine’s Day showing of Harold and Maude and I was so annoyed I was not able to go. I know it is a bit morbid, but it is so beautiful. This movie is for any misfit outsider who needs a reminder to go out and grab life for all it has to offer.
Harold and Maude is a 1971 American black comedy romantic film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama, with a plot that revolves around the exploits of a young man named Harold (played by Bud Cort) intrigued with death. Harold drifts away from the life that his detached mother (Vivian Pickles) prescribes for him, and develops a relationship with a 79-year-old woman named Maude (Ruth Gordon).
The film was based on a screenplay written by Colin Higgins and published as a novel in 1971. The movie was shot in the San Francisco Bay Area. Harold and Maude was also a play on Broadway that closed after four performances. A French adaptation for television, translated and written by Jean-Claude Carrière, appeared in 1978. It was adapted for the stage and performed in Québec, starring Roy Dupuis.
The film was critically and commercially unsuccessful on original release, but subsequently received critical and commercial success. The film is ranked number 45 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Funniest Movies of all Time, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1997 for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The Criterion Collection released a special edition version of the film on Blu-ray and DVD on June 12, 2012.
The movie ultimately developed a cult following and in 1983 began making a profit.
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Filed under: read, Uncategorized, Watch Tagged: American Film Institute, Bud Cort, Colin Higgins, Hal Ashby, Harold, Harold and Maude, Maude, Maude Harold, required viewing, Ruth Gordon, San Francisco Bay Area, Vivian Pickles
